WITH a dearth of racing in some states, and delays in some of the classics, last weekend saw the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby divided, and it is fair to say that we saw two exceptional winners. Both are trained by Bob Baffert who must have been pleased that he did not have to face them off against each other.

Should both Charlatan and Nadal continue to progress, and stay sound and healthy, they will be aimed at the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby which is now scheduled for September 5th. Targets before then are all tentative, and the pair are not the only talented three-year-old colts in Baffert’s barn.

Nadal won the second, and arguably stronger, division of the Arkansas Derby, 75 minutes after the trainer scored with Charlatan. Unraced at two, in less than two months of this year Nadal had raced three times and won all three. A debut win in mid-January at Santa Anita was followed by the Grade 2 San Vicente Stakes there, before he confirmed his class in the Grade 2 Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn,

The son of Blame (Arch) was bred by Ed and Sharon Hudon’s Sierra Farm in Kentucky. Sadly Ed died in 2018. Nadal was sold at Keeneland as a yearling for $65,000 to Randy Bradshaw but what a transformation when he was resold at Fasig-Tipton as a two-year-old for $700,000 six months later. Kerri Radcliffe was the purchaser this time.

Distinction

The colt is owned by George Bolton, Arthur Hoyeau (son of Arqana president Eric), Barry Lipman and Mark Mathiesen. Victory at the weekend brought his earnings to more than $1 million and his value to multiples of that, and he is the fifth Grade 1 winner for his sire who stands for $35,000 at Claiborne Farm. Nadal has the distinction of being Blame’s first son to win at the highest level, and his daughters who have done so include Senga who won the Group 1 2017 Prix de Diane-French Oaks.

Blame’s 29 stakes winners from his first six crops include 16 at group or grade level. An Eclipse Award winner as the champion older horse in the USA, Blame’s third and final season was his best, capturing the Grade 1 Whitney Handicap, Stephen Foster Handicap and rounding off the year with success in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Classic when he sensationally denied Zenyatta. He went to stud as the winner of nine of his 13 starts, never worse than third, and earnings of $4,368,214.

On the female side of his pedigree, Nadal is the second produce of his dam Ascending Angel, a daughter of Pulpit (A.P.Indy). She died after foaling Nadal. Ascending Angel was raced by Sierra Farm and must have been somewhat frustrating. She never ran badly but still never managed to win in 12 starts, all but one of them at the age of three. She was second once, third four times, fourth on three occasions and fifth on all her other outings,

Her first offspring is the four-year-old Angel Number (Lemon Drop Kid) and she was runner-up on her only start this year on January 3rd. She was retained by Sierra Farm and, not surprisingly, she was packed off to stud this spring and is in foal to the champion juvenile and Triple Crown winner American Pharoah (Pioneerof The Nile) who stands at Ashford.

Five winning siblings

Ascending Angel has five winning siblings, two of which were stakes performers. The stakes winner Reform Act (Lemon Drop Kid) was one of the pair and she was bought by Brian Grassick as a yearling for $130,000 and raced for Joe Higgins when trained by Dermot Weld. Her three victories included a listed race at Cork and she was runner-up to the great Yeats in the Listed Vintage Crop Stakes at Navan. Connections sent her to the USA in search of the elusive group/graded success and she placed in the Grade 2 Long Island Handicap at Aqueduct. She is the dam of four winners to date.

The second stakes performing sibling to Ascending Angel was Soul Search (A.P.Indy) and though she failed to win a stakes race, she was a superior runner, finishing second in the Grade 1 Juddmonte Spinster Stakes and third in the Grade 1 Personal Ensign Stakes. Her first seven foals of racing age are all winners and headed by the Graham Motion-trained Grade 3 winner Journey Home (War Front).

Soul Search had a winning full-sister in Lunar Colony (A.P.Indy) and she was sent by Will Farish, her breeder, to race in England. She made just three starts for John Gosden and won over 10 furlongs at Windsor at three. She has proven to be a successful broodmare with a pair of stakes winning produce, her son Lunar Victory (Speightstown) and daughter The Tea Cups (Hard Spun) both capturing stakes at Belmont Park and Saratoga.

This is a female line that is not short when it comes to high-class winners. Solar Colony (Pleasant Colony), the grandam of Nadal, is a full-sister to three graded stakes winners, the best being the US champion juvenile filly of 1991, Pleasant Stage. She captured her first win in the Grade 2 Oak Leaf Stakes before adding the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies. She never won again but was runner-up in the Kentucky Oaks.

Two of Solar Colony’s full-sisters have bred Grade 1 winners, Grade 2 winner Colonial Play (Pleasant Colony) being responsible for Marsh Side (Gone West) who won both the Grade 1 Canadian International Stakes and Northern Dancer Turf Stakes at Woodbine. Similarly, minor winner Meteor Colony’s best runner was Changeintheweather (also by Gone West).

Pleasant Stage was the best of the 10 winners from Meteor Stage (Stage Door Johnny) who was placed a couple of times at two. However, she had seven winning siblings, two of them successful at Grade 1 level.

A Phenomenon (Tentam) won half of his 12 starts, notably the Vosburgh Stakes and he was runner-up in the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap. Meanwhile, Seattle Meteor (Seattle Slew) gained her most important victory in the Spinaway Stakes at Saratoga and was a stakes-producer at stud.